From Friday 11 to Sunday 13 September
2015, the Stazione Leopolda (Firenze) will host Pitti Fragranze, the
international fair that brings to Florence the world’s finest
artistic perfumery.

For this issue Chandler Burr has designed a path
connecting visual art and perfumery, and MANE will be present for a
conference to lead the public through most iconic raw materials. Moreover, RAW is the new section, where public can explore perfumery' raw materials, starting with Calabrian Bergamot.

Until August 2, the beautiful Villa
Carlotta in Tremezzo (Como) hosts "Microcosm of Glass", an
art installation of Murano glass by Silvia Rutolo and Mauro
Puccitelli. Part of this installation is named "Amore and
Psyche", and joins glass art and perfumery in an exciting way.
But first thinglet's speak of the visual part: here you have SilviaRutolo's site; Silviais not only a great
person and a passionate woman, but above all a very much appreciated
artist, who creates little masterpieces to wear.

In particular,
this year we have worked with her since she wanted to scent her
"Cocoons". The cocoons are made of Murano glass and may be
transparent, colored, or with gold and silver streaks, and make
refined pendants. Inside the glass cocoon, she places a silk thread,
which the customer can then scent using a tiny dropper. It's a very
elegant and exclusive way to perfume oneself, and, together, sport an
unique piece of handmade artistic jewelry.

Bois 1920 (Bottega Italiana dello Spigo - Italian Aspic Atelier- website here) is an Italian perfumery brand estabilished in the niche market almost 10 years ago. Its founder,
Enzo Galardi, is also the creator of all the perfumes.

The line now
offers 25 fragrances, all made with taste and elegance, some of which are becoming small classics: Sushi Imperiale for example is a
very unique salty gourmand, Sutra Ylang features a ylang ylang note
of rare sophistication, Real Patchouly is a nice classic, lively
patchouli Agrumi di Sicilia is a dry and bitter Cologne, very
elegant and modern.

But if you have the chance, I would advise you to
try them all, because in the contemporary "artistic"
market, where many new brands shout out loud to be heard, BOIS 1920 features a
good taste and a composure rare to find and refreshing.

In
the late '70s and early' 80s my father was still working at the Port
of Genoa and his work often took him on board merchant vessels for
document control and procedures for discharging cargo. If he knew he would get on board a ship coming from
particularly exotic places, he never failed to bring along something
to give the officers as a welcome. Generally it would be something
typically Italian like a packet of pasta or a bottle of wine.

In
particular, when the vessels came from China he generally was
returning home with little treasures that none of us had ever seen
before: masks made of rice paper so thin that one could see through
it, traumatizing "Hundred Years" eggs (duck eggs subjected
to an oxidation process underground that completely transforms the
color, texture and flavor), but especially jasmine, sandalwood and
orange blossom soaps, and small fans made of
sandalwood that, while cooling you down with air, also intoxicated
you with the beautiful scent of sandalwood.

Obviously these last
items were my favorites, and some of these are still circulating at
my parents'(not the eggs, fortunately). Well, thirty years after,
both the fans and the soaps still bear traces of the scent!

Why
I'm telling you all this? Because the other day I received from
Maestro Lorenzo Villoresi a sample of his new creation, Kamasurabhi,
I sprayed it on... and I jumped back thirty years! I had not smelled
such a clear and powerful sandalwood note since those fans. A woody,
pungent note, yet gentle; mystical yet daily.

Terralba (by Delphine Thierry) tells
that moment when you left the car in the road, several meters back,
and you've gone into the pine forest, following a small path of
stones and twigs that you know will get you in front of the sea, with
its intense blue. But the sea is only a pretext, in this perfume you don't really perceive it at all; no splashing wave refresh the air
because all you perceive are the scents around you: bitter, resinous,
intense, tipycally mediterranean, melting into each other, releasing
all their sensual and almost tactile charm (sage, citrus, myrtle,
thyme, curry leaves, helycrisum, juniper, cypress, cedarwood).

This is a perfume that gives the skin
thrills: it's wild, very natural, yet at the same time is elegant and
well structured, harmoniously sewed as you would expect from a
modern perfume.

Masque Milano (English website here) is a new Italian brand, founded by two friends with brave
characters, motivated, spirited and with a fantastic taste for
fragrances.

To give life to their line they
selected composers already established but yet not too famous, and
commissioned them a collection of "scenes" of life or
significant moments, places visited, friendship, love, moods,
recurring dreams ...

Each fragrance in Masque Milano
collection was born to share each of these scenes.

In this way, the five fragrances are
consistent with each other, they form a whole ensemble with a strong
vision behind, that you feel strongly in each perfume. I loved the scents themselves, and the
idea of Italy they carry: not only they contain our best raw
materials (helichrysum, bergamot, jasmine, lavender, tobacco etc),
but their bouquets are open and exuberant, and at the same time
absolutely elegant, that sort of effortless, relaxed elegance that
bears no ostentation. All share a very natural feeling, "outdoors-y"
and open. In addition, all the Masque perfumes possess a quality I
would call "tasty" that makes them particularly intriguing
and, again, very Italian.

One of the particularities about orris root,
is that even better than other notes, expresses an almost infinite
spectrum of facets; depending on how it is treated and what you
choose to lay beside it, shows very different characteristics in each
perfume: a royal nature (Iris Silver Mist by Serge Lutens), or intellectual and refined to the core (Hiris by Hermes) a sophisticate outdoor simplicity (Bel
Respiro by Chanel), minimal and prone to ascetism (Iris Poudre by
Frederic Malle, Iris Nazarena by Aedes de Venustas), opulent and
feminine, vaguely retro (Attrape Coeur/Guet Apens by Guerlain) or, as
in the beautiful N.19 by Chanel, an almost unfriendly and snobbish
austerity.

Samantha Cristoforetti (yes,
#astrosamantha, the astronaut) spoke twice about smells during her
mission on the ISS, and I believe no other astronaut before had ever
mentioned anything about smell and outer space.

The first time was
more a joke than a real thing (“Outer space smells of something
burned"), while the second was more serious.

She had just landed few
minutes before, and one of the first things she said was:"I
perceive a soft, pleasant smell”.

The second statement is the one
that strikes me and makes me reflect . What I would give to have her
describe that smell!

ABOUT ME * CHI SONO

DISCLAIMER * LEGGI QUI

I created this blog because I wanted to share my passion for perfume with other people. I wished I could sit in a room lined with purple velvet and talk about perfumes, compare my emotions and expand my knowledge through other noses, other brains, other souls. For this, post consultation and participation in discussions is open to anyone: there’s no need to register or be known in any way, or be deeply into this issue. Anyone can leave an emotion, an info, or a hint of reflection. In return I only ask for respect for all those enjoying this place. There are people who only read and people who write, too; well, it's nice when there are many voices to be heard. I wish to emphasize that this blog is not a commercial product. I gain no money from clicks or subscriptions; the time I spend here comes from passion and the desire to learn. Sometimes my job, my family and everyday tasks become urgent and I can’t guarantee regular updating. Every review I write is the result of choices made by my personal taste and my pleasure. I write about perfumes and brands I like, which strike me, there's so much Beauty in this world ... I prefer using my time to share Beauty, rather than to discredit Ugliness. Which however, in the long run, discredits itself fairly well without any help from my side .So, I don’t get any money for the reviews I write, nor perfume bottles. Few times someone thanked me for something I wrote via a kind email or a phone call. It happened a scent arrived too, but after, and without I imagined or expected anything and mostly, when I receive a scented gift, I like to share it with friends participating in this space. Sometimes I happen to receive packages with new scents to test and write about, and in that case, if I like them, I’m happy to review it, otherwise I'd rather not write anything. But if I haven’t spoken about something yet, it doesn’t mean that I don’t like it, maybe it’s only I don’t know it yet!